1. Technical Field
The disclosure and claims herein generally relate to multi-node computer systems, and more specifically relate to using virtual private networks to provide object level security for database objects on a multi-node computer system.
2. Background Art
Supercomputers and other multi-node computer systems continue to be developed to tackle sophisticated computing jobs. One type of multi-node computer system is a massively parallel computer system. A family of such massively parallel computers is being developed by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) under the name Blue Gene. The Blue Gene/L system is a high density, scalable system in which the current maximum number of compute nodes is 65,536. The Blue Gene/L node consists of a single ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) with 2 CPUs and memory. The full computer is housed in 64 racks or cabinets with 32 node boards in each rack.
Computer systems such as Blue Gene have a large number of nodes, each with its own processor and local memory. The nodes are connected with several communication networks. One communication network connects the nodes in a logical tree network. In the logical tree network, the Nodes are connected to an input-output (I/O) node at the top of the tree. In Blue Gene, there are 2 compute nodes per node card with 2 processors each. A node board holds 16 node cards and each rack holds 32 node boards. A node board has slots to hold 2 I/O cards that each have 2 I/O nodes. The nodes on two node boards can be configured in a virtual tree network that communicate with the I/O nodes.
Multi-node computer systems such as Blue Gene support the possibility of an in memory database. An in memory database is one where some portion of the database, or the entire database resides completely in memory rather than in bulk storage. An in memory database could provide an extremely fast response time for searches or queries of the database. A concern of all computer systems is data security. Some prior art data security techniques may not be effective or readily implemented on a parallel computer system, and in particular one with an in memory database.
Without an efficient way to provide object level security for database objects, multi-node computer systems will continue to suffer from reduced data security and reduced efficiency of the computer system.